Plan to Capture Bin Laden Before 9/11 Was Called Off

ABC News ^ | 5/21/03 | Brian Ross

[Interloper]

The FBI made secret plans to capture and arrest Osama bin Laden five years ago, long before the terror leader's deadliest plan came to fruition.

Jack Cloonan, a former FBI agent who is now an ABCNEWS consultant, said that federal agents seeking bin Laden had developed a plan to have a plane fly in and attack a compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where the terror leader was believed to have been holed up back in 1998 — three years before the devastating attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But when the plan went up the chain of command for approval, it was killed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno.

"They came to the decision that this plan was probably too dangerous, that the loss of life on the ground would have been significant," Cloonan said. There was concern that people around the bin Laden compound would be killed."

The Secret Team

Cloonan was part of a secret team of federal investigators whose sole purpose was to apprehend the terror leader.

Like other agents, he was relishing the idea of nabbing the head of al Qaeda.

"I would have said 'Sheik bin Laden, you are under arrest. You are charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals abroad,' " he said.

Starting in early 1996, a team of FBI and CIA agents was secretly sent to an unmarked office in a nondescript building off the Beltway in Alexandria, Va. It was called Alex Station, and it was the center of a U.S. government operation to capture bin Laden. Cloonan was one of 13 FBI agents from New York who was part of Alex Station.

"We were in the business of trying to find people, track them down," he said.

By early 1998, Alex Station had developed enough information through investigation and informants to get a formal criminal indictment returned against bin Laden, which would still be used if he were captured today.

Cloonan said the agents learned a great deal about al Qaeda's operations and its leaders during this time.

"We can say for the first time, this is who is running al Qaeda, this is the military committee, this is what you do when you join al Qaeda, " Cloonan said. "You raise your right hand and you pledge bayat [swear allegiance] ... to bin Laden."

But Cloonan said they were on more than just a discovery mission.

"There's no sense in getting involved in a case like this and seeking an indictment if you're not going to bring this to a logical conclusion," Cloonan said. "And that logical conclusion for us was the arrest of bin Laden."

The Compound Plan

The plan to capture bin Laden was focused on a compound in Kandahar, the stronghold of the Taliban, the Islamic militia that ruled most of Afghanistan at the time.

"We had information, pretty good information on the particular house where he was," Cloonan said.

Using a desert area outside San Antonio, Texas, similar to the terrain in Afghanistan, the Alex Station team actually practiced the short takeoff and landing that would have been necessary to carry out the mission. A plane was to fly in from Uzbekistan.

"A U.S. plane was to fly in," Cloonan said. "And he [bin Laden] would have been greeted by an FBI agent, who would have said, 'Sheik bin Laden, there is a warrant for your arrest,'" he said.

The former attorney general declined to comment to ABCNEWS' Good Morning America, saying the incident was classified.

Cloonan says Reno's decision to kill the plan was never reopened

[CyberAnt]

"There was concern that people around the bin Laden compound would be killed"

THIS IS WHY YOU CAN NEVER TRUST A DEMOCRAT WITH NATIONAL SECURITY ...!!!! Anybody that was anywhere near that compound was in league with the guy - so they were a target too. Dems never get that point. If you kill one guy who shouldn't have been killed, the whole campaign was worthless. Like I said: never trust a democrat with national security.

[Redbob]

"Cloonan said. "And he [bin Laden] would have been greeted by an FBI agent, who would have said, 'Sheik bin Laden, there is a warrant for your arrest,'"

I would have much preferred the shorter,"Hey, *sswipe, here's a .45 with your name on it. {bang}"

There is virtue in brevity.

[DPB101]

Why did Jack Cloonan wait so long to spill this? Fear?

[Campion]

Someone should have explained to Ms. Reno that Osama bin Laden was a Cuban refugee, and Fidel wanted him back where he belonged. That would have gotten things moving!

[InvisibleChurch]

it was killed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno.

for being a peacenik, she sure seemed to kill a lot

[dead]

Reno found out that there were no children there she could kill.

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" federal agents seeking bin Laden had developed a plan to have a plane fly in and attack a compound in Kandahar, Afghanistan,

Call me a skeptic. But when did the FBI develop a Special Ops team capable of a mission such as this?

This assignment would require Delta Force or Rangers, not G-men."

It appears that the Clinton administration was even more chaotic,more inept,more disorganized that even we realized.Allowing Janet Reno to make national security decisions is mind boggling. Maybe the Clinton Administration thought the fact that she had the word General in front of her name,meant she was a military tactician.

[Michael.SF.]

It appears that the Clinton administration was even more chaotic,more inept,more disorganized that even we realized.Allowing Janet Reno to make national security decisions is mind boggling.

I felt the comment tended towards mking the whole story unbelieveable, rather then confirming that the Clinton administration's ineptness mextended to this depth.

[Calpernia]

Excerpted....Long: http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/heritage-clinton-failure-2-27-98.htm

THE ANATOMY OF CLINTON'S FAILURE IN IRAQ

Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No. 1161

By Kim R. Holmes and James Phillips

27 February 1998




United Nations (U.N.) Secretary General Kofi Annan's recent deal with Iraq represents a major victory for Saddam Hussein and a significant setback for U.S. diplomacy and credibility. Saddam has promised to allow U.N. inspectors unfettered access to suspected weapon sites, but he has made such promises in the past and then broken them, repeatedly and with impunity. More important, the Iraqi dictator has gained important concessions from the United States and the U.N. that give him a political triumph that will strengthen his power and enhance his ability to undermine the Clinton Administration's containment policy and standing in the region. Even worse, he has raised the cost of any future use of force against him.

Consider the facts. After manufacturing a crisis last October, Saddam now has agreed to let U.N. weapons inspectors back in Iraq to do their job. But he had five months to build and conceal weapons of mass destruction while he obstructed those inspectors. There is no way to know what Saddam has done to develop these prohibited weapons or to make their detection more difficult for future inspectors. What is more, Saddam has forced the U.N. to agree to let diplomats accompany U.N. inspection teams--some of whom could tip off Baghdad about impending inspections. This concession implies that Saddam had legitimate grounds for his suspicions about past U.N. inspection teams. Annan has added to the legitimacy of this viewpoint by characterizing some U.N. inspectors as "cowboys" who supposedly have behaved irresponsibly inside Iraq. Now that the U.N. has recognized Saddam's criticisms implicitly, he is sure to try other means to test the limits of the inspection regime

[Calpernia]

Excerpted....Long: http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/cfsp-00-f-6.htm

NIX TO BLIX: MAN WHO CERTIFIED IRAQ AS NON-NUCLEAR IS UNLIKELY TO FIND -- OR EVEN TO SEEK -- SADDAM'S HIDDEN WEAPONS

Security Council's Choice is Sure Sign of End of 'Containment'

Center for Security Policy
SECURITY FORUM No. 00-F 6

27 January 2000



In a hugely disappointing decision yesterday to fill a senior UN bureaucratic post, the Security Council spoke volumes about its depleted appetite for further confrontations with -- to say nothing of additional efforts to punish -- Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The Security Council formally endorsed Secretary General Kofi Annan's recommendation to appoint Hans Blix. a Swedish diplomat with a checkered record, to become the first head of the successor to the UN Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM).

Blix was the lowest-common-denominator choice for the job after Russia, China and France vetoed his much more conscientious compatriot, Rolf Ekeus. He is a natural choice to run the sort of Potemkin inspection operation that those three countries clearly have in mind for their once-and-future client, Iraq. Given Blix's dismal sixteen-year performance as director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- an organization that had an uncanny track-record during his tenure of not finding evidence of nuclear weapons activities prohibited by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Thus not only Iraq, but Iran, North Korea, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa were among the nations that succeeded in largely concealing indigenous or collaborative nuclear weapons programs from Blix's IAEA.

Unfortunately, as the following, recently published editorials make clear, the Blix appointment is only the latest in a litany of serious mistakes made by the Clinton-Gore Administration with respect to Iraq. If not immediately reversed, these mistakes will have the effect of empowering and emboldening Saddam -- and set the stage for serious grief for the United States and its regional allies down the road.

[hobbes1]

yes, number three choice, Behind Kimba Woods, and Zoe Baird, and you just know they had a fat file on her....

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

[There was concern that people around the bin Laden compound would be killed.]

Earth to Reno: Anyone around the compound would have been an al-queda terrorist. Jeeez, what a moron.

[AlGone2001]

But when the plan went up the chain of command for approval, it was killed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno.

Too bad he wasn't in Waco, Afghanistan.

[lorrainer]

Janet Reno: the latest "Expendable Crew Menber."

[aristeides]

Clinton was protecting bin Laden. With every new revelation, that fact becomes more and more obvious.

[Susannah]

Amazing that ABC would even cover this. Let me guess the democrats response: Why didn't Bush or the Republicans in Congress pick this up before 9-11?


This may have already been posted:: If you go to http://www.pbs.org and put bojinka in the search box, you'll get the plan of the 9-11 attack (I think bojinka was uncovered in 1995 after investigations of the '93 WTC bombing)


here's another link to pbs (I like to use pbs because even leftist recognize it as leaning to the left)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/cron.html
(a timeline)
"An overview of how Al Qaeda's rise and international reach gradually came into focus for U.S. intelligence.
Note: This chronology is drawn from news and government information that came out prior to, and after, the Sept. 11 attacks."

[I got the rope]

A US Attorny General DECIDES not to capture Bin Laden on foriegn soil....I call BS on this Clintonspeak.

[Nakota]

Reno was worried about casualties in Afghanistan, well, she sure didn't worry about them in Waco!!!